Make-Ahead Vegan Pumpkin French Toast Casserole with Maple Pecan Topping
A make-ahead vegan pumpkin French toast casserole: sourdough soaked overnight in spiced pumpkin custard, then baked under a crisp maple pecan crumble.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 50 min
- Rest
- 8 h
- Serves
- 8
Make-Ahead Vegan Pumpkin French Toast Casserole with Maple Pecan Topping is a vegan breakfast recipe made with day-old sourdough bread, coconut oil or neutral oil, unsweetened oat milk. It takes 70 minutes of hands-on time, plus 8 hours resting, serves 8, and each serving has 418 calories, 9 g of protein and 5 g of fiber.
Chickpea flour and a spoonful of cornstarch replace the eggs here. They thicken the pumpkin and oat milk custard so it sets into soft, sliceable layers instead of a soggy middle. Day-old sourdough holds its shape during an overnight soak, and its tang balances the maple. Assemble it the night before, scatter on the pecan topping in the morning, and bake. It takes about 20 minutes of hands-on work.
Ingredients
Casserole
- 1 lb454 gday-old sourdough bread, cut into 1-inch cubes (about 10 cups)
- 1 tsp4.5 gcoconut oil or neutral oil, for greasing the dish
Pumpkin custard
- 2½ cups600 gunsweetened oat milk
- 1 cup245 gpumpkin purée (not pumpkin pie filling)
- ⅓ cup30 gchickpea flour
- 1 tbsp8 gcornstarch
- ⅓ cup106 gpure maple syrup
- 2 tsp8.4 gvanilla extract
- 2 tsp5.2 gground cinnamon
- ½ tsp1.1 gground nutmeg
- ½ tsp0.9 gground ginger
- ¼ tsp1.5 gfine salt
Maple pecan topping
- ¾ cup74 gpecans, roughly chopped
- ¼ cup55 gbrown sugar
- 3 tbsp23 gall-purpose flour
- 3 tbsp41 gcoconut oil, melted
- 1 tbsp20 gpure maple syrup
- ½ tsp1.3 gground cinnamon
- 1 pinch0.4 gpinch of salt
To serve
- ¼ cup80 gextra maple syrup, for serving (optional)
Kit: 9x13-inch baking dish, large mixing bowl, whisk, aluminum foil
Tips
- Use sourdough that is at least a day old. Fresh, soft bread soaks up the custard too fast and turns mushy.
- Mix the chickpea flour into a paste with a little oat milk before adding the rest so it can't clump. It needs the full bake to lose its raw, beany taste, so don't pull the dish out early.
- Keep the topping separate until baking day. If it sits on the wet casserole overnight it soaks up moisture and won't crisp.
Swap ideas
- Walnuts instead of pecans
- The topping turns a little more bitter and earthy and costs less.
- Soy milk instead of oat milk
- The custard sets a bit firmer and tastes richer, with less natural sweetness.
- Gluten-free sandwich bread or GF sourdough, plus a 1:1 GF flour in the topping
- Makes it gluten-free. GF bread soaks faster, so a 2–4 hour soak is enough.
- Coconut sugar instead of brown sugar in the topping
- The crumble tastes deeper and more caramel-like and looks slightly darker.
The numbers
Nutrition per serving
418kcal per serving
Everything else · 8 servings per recipe
- Saturated fat
- 5.8 g 29%
- Sugars
- 22.9 g
- Sodium
- 472 mg 21%
- Potassium
- 372 mg 8%
- Calcium
- 184 mg 14%
- Iron
- 3.5 mg 19%
- Vitamin C
- 1 mg 2%
- Vitamin B12
- 0.12 µg 5%
% Daily Value on a 2,000 calorie diet. Calculated from USDA FoodData Central values for each ingredient; optional ingredients are excluded. Estimates vary with brands and portions.
Sources: Bread, french or vienna (includes sourdough), Oil, coconut, Oatly Original Oatmilk (Nutrition Facts per 1 cup / 240 ml: 120 kcal, 5 g fat, 0.5 g sat fat, 100 mg sodium, 16 g carbs, 2 g fiber, 7 g sugars, 3 g protein, 350 mg calcium, 0.3 mg iron, 390 mg potassium, 0.4 mcg B12). Converted to per 100 g assuming ~244 g per cup (density ≈ 1.02 g/mL); vitamin C not listed, treated as 0., Pumpkin, canned, without salt, Chickpea flour (besan), Cornstarch, Syrups, maple, Vanilla extract, Spices, cinnamon, ground, Spices, nutmeg, ground, Spices, ginger, ground, Salt, table, Nuts, pecans, Sugars, brown, Wheat flour, white, all-purpose, enriched, bleached
Method
Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with the oil. If your bread is fresh rather than day-old, spread the cubes on a sheet pan and dry them in a 300°F oven for 10–12 minutes, until the outsides feel dry but not browned. Let them cool before going on.
In a large bowl, whisk the chickpea flour, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt together. Slowly whisk in about 1/2 cup of the oat milk to make a smooth paste with no lumps. Then whisk in the remaining oat milk, the pumpkin purée, the maple syrup and the vanilla until smooth.
Spread the bread cubes in the dish and pour the custard evenly over the top. Press down with a spatula so every cube gets wet, then turn any dry pieces over so they soak.
Cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or overnight (up to 24 hours) so the bread absorbs the custard. If you're short on time, a 1-hour soak works, but the centre will be a little less custardy.
In the morning, take the dish out of the fridge and heat the oven to 350°F. In a small bowl, stir the pecans, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, melted coconut oil and 1 tbsp maple syrup together until clumpy. Scatter it over the casserole.
Cover the dish with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Covering it first lets the centre heat through before the pecans brown.
Remove the foil and bake for another 20–25 minutes. It's done when the top is golden, the pecans smell toasted, and a knife pushed into the centre comes out without wet custard. Use your fingertip to press the middle: it should feel set and springy, not wet. If the pecans darken before the centre sets, cover loosely with foil again.
Let it rest for 10 minutes so the custard firms up, then cut into squares. Serve with extra maple syrup if you like.
Storage: Keep leftovers covered in the fridge for up to 4 days. To reheat, microwave single squares for 60–90 seconds, or warm the whole dish covered at 350°F for 15–20 minutes. Baked squares freeze well for up to 2 months; thaw them overnight in the fridge before reheating.
Questions
- How much protein is in make-ahead vegan pumpkin french toast casserole with maple pecan topping?
- Each of the 8 servings has 9 g of protein, 5 g of fiber and 418 calories, calculated from USDA FoodData Central values for every ingredient.
- Is make-ahead vegan pumpkin french toast casserole with maple pecan topping vegan?
- Yes. It contains no dairy, eggs, honey or other animal products.
- How long does make-ahead vegan pumpkin french toast casserole with maple pecan topping take to make?
- 20 minutes of prep and 50 minutes of cooking, so 70 minutes of hands-on time, plus 8 hours of unattended resting.
- Can you make make-ahead vegan pumpkin french toast casserole with maple pecan topping ahead?
- Keep leftovers covered in the fridge for up to 4 days. To reheat, microwave single squares for 60–90 seconds, or warm the whole dish covered at 350°F for 15–20 minutes. Baked squares freeze well for up to 2 months; thaw them overnight in the fridge before reheating.
- What can I substitute in make-ahead vegan pumpkin french toast casserole with maple pecan topping?
- Walnuts instead of pecans — the topping turns a little more bitter and earthy and costs less.. Soy milk instead of oat milk — the custard sets a bit firmer and tastes richer, with less natural sweetness.. Gluten-free sandwich bread or GF sourdough, plus a 1:1 GF flour in the topping — makes it gluten-free. gf bread soaks faster, so a 2–4 hour soak is enough.. Coconut sugar instead of brown sugar in the topping — the crumble tastes deeper and more caramel-like and looks slightly darker..
- Does make-ahead vegan pumpkin french toast casserole with maple pecan topping contain gluten or tree nuts?
- Yes — the ingredient list includes gluten and tree nuts, in some cases as an optional ingredient you can leave out. Check the labels on the products you buy if you're cooking for an allergy.
Nutrition is calculated from USDA data for every ingredient — how we work it out.
Published October 22, 2026 ·American
